Financial Inclusion

Lagos/ Hilversum, May 5th 2011 – Goodwell West Africa, a microfinance investment vehicle co-managed by investment manager Goodwell Investments and Alitheia Capital in Nigeria, announces today its investment in Paga – a mobile payments company based in Lagos Nigeria.

Today, Paga announces an investment in the company by Tim Draper, a well known Venture Capitalist based in the United States. Paga, the pioneering mobile money platform in Nigeria, launched in February 2011 after receiving approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria. The company's initial set of products are delivered to meet critical needs of the Nigerian public: ability to transfer money fast and reliably, pay bills, top-up airtime or pay merchants safely. Paga delivers these services via the mobile phone and internet.

On Thursday September 23rd we launched the pilot of our mobile payments service, Paga. Paga is ready to launch nationwide once regulatory approvals are issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria. In preparation for our nationwide launch, we kicked off a closed loop pilot in Lagos. This pilot gives early access to a group of individuals who will give us valuable feedback on the platform and service.

The Entrepreneurs Ecosystem is a new organisation in Nigeria created to foster an enabling environment for entrepreneurs in Nigeria. The Ecosystem was created by Alitheia Capital to "improve the chances of survival and maximize the potential of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria."

Events are held through the year in various parts of the country. These events will range from small group morning coffee sessions, to training events, and an annual conference.

Tech4Africa is a new conference about web, mobile, and emerging technology in Africa. The inaugural conference was held August 12th-13th in Johannesburg, South Africa. Pagatech's CEO, Tayo Oviosu, was invited to speak on a panel on "Unlocking Mobile Payments."

Pagatech's CEO, Tayo Oviosu, was on a panel discussing Mobile Money and impact to retail banking

The G-20 has recently issued a communiqué placing a policy priority on financial inclusion. This was done after the third Global Leadership Seminar for high-level policymakers and regulators who set policy for branchless banking, including mobile banking.

The October 2008 edition of Africa Renewal Magazine asked some questions we think all Africans should seriously ponder –

“What if wealthy Africans decided to invest their earnings in Africa instead of overseas? And if the 80% of Africans now without bank accounts got access to formal financial services? And if African governments put their domestic revenues into productive investments?”

When discussion turns to the topic of “financial inclusion” and “banking the unbanked”, sceptics often ask a variant of the question “If people are so poor, how do they have any money left over to save?”